In general, disposible latex gloves are worn during a medical procedure to provide a physical barrier between a patient's body or tissues and the hands and wrists of a health care practicioner such as a physician, nurse, phlebotomist and the like. The gloves need to be flexible so that the manual dexterity of the health care practicioner or worker is not significantly decreased. The gloves are well-fitting and are comfortable so that glove wear does not cause hand fatigue or discomfort.
Sterile and nonsterile latex medical gloves are available. Sterile latex medical gloves are also known in the field as surgical gloves; they are sterilized at the glove factory; are made available typically as a pair in a specific size and are sealed in a sterile package. Surgical gloves are most often used for sterile field surgery to prevent a transfer of an infectious pathogen to a surface of a surgical wound from a surgeon's hands. Nonsterile latex medical gloves are also known in the field as examination gloves; they are used during non-sterile procedures; are made available usually in a size that can suitably fit either hand and are often packaged in bulk, for example in quanities of 50 per box. Non-sterile procedures include the medical examination of human body surfaces, body invaginations and body orifaces; nonsterile medical gloves are also worn for protecting the hands of medical, research or hospital workers from contact with biohazardous substances and surfaces which include but are not limited to the following: biological waste products such as feces and urine, soiled wound dressings, garments or other materials, irritating or toxic liquids or chemicals, biological toxins, radioactive substances, and infectious pathogens. For the present invention, the term "infectious pathogens" is meant to include but is not limited to the following: viruses, bacteria, fungi, rickettsia, prions, multicellular parasites, the spores of infectious pathogens, and the like.
At least three kinds of glove wall failure are known currently plague the currently known types of medical gloves. First, about two percent of standard latex gloves have inherent microscopic perforations from manufacturing that can be permeated by the smaller infectious pathogens such viruses. Secondly, during their use, medical gloves may acquire small tears, perforations or punctures which go unnoticed and provide a means for infectious pathogens, particularily in bloody contaminated body fluids, to come into contact with the hands of the glove wearer. If an infectious pathogen contacts human skin, the individual may eventually become systemically infected with the pathogen. Thirdly, a gloved hand may become contaminated with an infectious pathogen if the glove is accidentally punctured by an object that is contaminated with an infectious pathogen. The glove puncturing object may have a sharp edge like a hypodermic needle, suture needle, or scapel blade or may only have blunt edges. Clearly the currently available medical gloves are not designed to protect a hand from becoming contaminated with an infectious pathogen once the glove wall has become damaged. The breakdown of the physical barrier protection of a glove leaves a hand susceptible to contamination and infection with an infectious pathogen, and ultimately susceptible to a systemic infection with the pathogen which may have devastating consequences.
The recent emergence of several lethal vital diseases caused by infectious pathogens has created an urgent need for more protective medical gloves that retain their medical utility. Currently, the most feared infectious pathogen is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); this infectious pathogen is believed to systemically infect and compromise the human immune system and thereby cause Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS); AIDS generally is ultimately fatal. Hepatitis B virus is another example of a lethal virus that infects humans.
Medical gloves are commonly made from elastomeric or plastic materials such as latex rubber or plastic. Materials for a glove may also be obtained from a plant fiber such as cotton, animal secretion such as silk, animal tissue such as the skin or intestine, a mineral fiber or a metal fiber. The material(s) used to manufacture a medical glove should be flexible and should be capable of being made into a fiber or a thin sheet.
A second pair of gloves may be worn over the first pair of gloves to increase the thickness of their physical barrier protection. Multiple pairs of medical gloves can be worn provided that fine dexterous hand work can still be done. If two or more pairs of gloves are worn, the medical work by the gloved hand may become difficult and tiring.
Thick-walled work gloves have been made from the same materials used to make thin-walled gloves. Thick-walled gloves are inflexible and this property has generally limited their utility to most medical doctors, health care workers, skilled workers and like workers. A number of thick-walled work gloves have been developed to protect a hand from a serious cut or puncture wound by an object. For example, thick-walled cut-resistent gloves have been developed to protect the hands in animal slaughter houses where meat is manually cut (See U.S Pat. No. 4,526,828 and PCT WO 91/10409). However, a puncture-resistent glove has not been developed that is also flexible enough for medical personnel and the like.
A glove in accordance with the present invention is designed to be thin-walled and flexible, to be comfortably worn and easily used by medical personnel and the like workers; consequently a glove in accordance with the present invention is Just as capable as a standard medical glove of being punctured by an object. But the present invention has important, novel additional functions. A glove in accordance with the present invention can immediately begin to help to protect a hand and a hand wound beneath the glove from becoming infected with an infectious pathogen after an object contaminated with an infectious pathogen has punctured the glove.
A recent study of accidental blood contact during hospital surgical procedures in burn, trauma, orthopedic, general, gynecology, and plastic surgical services concluded that surgical gloves are an important means for preventing a substantial percentage of the blood contacts with the hands (Panlilo et al, 1991). Blood and body fluids can be contaminated with infectious pathogens such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, also commonly called the AIDS virus) and the Hepatitis B virus. Because many substances or material objects can temporarily harbor an infectious pathogen, medical workers are well-schooled in the risks of becoming contaminated from contacting soiled objects and body fluids from infected individuals. Medical workers are advised to wear medical gloves in any environment which may contain infectious pathogens (Panlilo et al., 1991).
The United States Center For Disease Control (U.S. CDC) has issued guidelines for the prevention and control of nosocomial infections, for hospital environment control, and for control of surgical wound infections (See publications by Simmons, B. P., 1983). The U.S. CDC reported that a clean wound (a wound that is initially pathogen-free) has only a 1 to 5 percent average risk of becoming infected; the U.S. CDC reported that a contaminated wound (a wound exposed to an infectious pathogen) has a 15 to 17 percent average risk of becoming infected, and that a dirty wound (a wound exposed to biological or environmental liquid and solid waste which may be contaminated with an infectious pathogen) has more than a 27 percent average risk of becoming infected. Therefore, an infection is more likely to occur in a dirty or contaminated wound than in a clean wound. Surgeons have administered an antiseptic solution directly into a wound as an irrigation solution (See also Maki, D. C, 1976). Furthermore the U.S. CDC guidelines have advised doctors and health care workers to wash their hands with an antiseptic detergent to reduce the microbial (infectious pathogen) contamination on their hands before they wear medical gloves. Wound cleaning and antiseptic decontamination of the hands are thus established methods for decreasing the risk of infection in a wound. The U.S. CDC has also reported that antiseptics are more effective antimicrobial agents than soap and water, but has pointed out that frequent skin contact with an antiseptic can be more irritating than soap and water to the skin.
In 1987, the U.S. CDC issued the recommendation that medical examination gloves be worn as a "universal precaution". To adhere to the universal precaution guidelines, doctors and other medical personnel are expected: (1) to assume that each patient is infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and thus to wear a new pair of gloves with each new patient, and (2) to remove their gloves and to wash their hands immediately if their hands appear to have become contaminated with blood or other body fluids (See Bartlett, J. G., 1988).
Although medical workers are well aware of the utility of an antiseptic in the prevention of skin infection and wound infection, medical glove wearers may not always be able to comply with the proposed U.S. CDC guidelines in a competent manner. It may be inconvient or impossible for a glove wearer to immediately remove a damaged or contaminated glove during surgery or during a stressful medical emergency. Such a delay in glove removal may be dangerous for the glove wearer. The time delay may permit the blood circulation of the glove wearer to become more contaminated with an infectious pathogen. Later attempts to disinfect the hand or hand wound with an antiseptic would then be ineffective in preventing the systemic infection of the individual with the infectious pathogen. The individual may also delay glove removal and cleaning the contaminated hand or hand wound with an antiseptic because the accident went unnoticed; the pain of the wound pain may not be not felt and/or hand wound bleeding may be minor or not seen. Thus, delayed glove removal and delayed hand disinfection wearer can have serious consequences.
There has been an obvious increase in the wearing of medical gloves in many health care work environments following adoption of the "universal precautions" guidelines and the epidemic growth of AIDS in the human population. To be safe, because it is not known for certainty exactly which work environments can harbor an infectious pathogen such as HIV, medical gloves are now routinely worn by many medical or public workers when they feel they are at some risk of accidental infection. The work environments or forms of work may include but are not limited to the following examples: hospitals, medical clinics, private doctor offices, emergency medical ambulance work, fire rescue work, medical practice areas involving AIDS patient care, surgery, gynecology, human fertility work, urology, general medicine, pathology, epidemiology, microbiology, neurology, orthopedics, radiology, oncology, nursing, dentistry, podiatry, psychiatry, psychiatric hospitals, hospices, other medical practices and specialties, kidney dialysis centers, diagnostic medical imaging-testing and operations facilities, hospital emergency waiting rooms, emergency hospital ambulatory care, clinics for drug rehabilitation, donor organ and tissue preservation banks and labs, blood banks, blood testing and related analytical chemistry labs, sperm banks, sperm testing labs, basic and clinical medical research labs, medical instrument cleaning, sharpening and repair facilities, hospital patient rooms, operating rooms, cleaning and maintenance work, hospital laundaries, hospital cafeterias, other hospital patient food service work, hospital morgues, funeral homes and related work areas dealing with study and handling of dead human bodies and tissues, medical and public waste or refuse collection areas, disposal areas and containers for human blood and disposible medical utensils, work with blood products, urine products or other body products, hospital trash and other disposible waste areas which might contain medical waste, work with sharp contaminated objects such as needles, syringes, wires, catheters, and intravenous sets, plastic and glass tubes and pipettes, glass slides, scalpel blades, and the like; disposible medical instruments and work areas involved in surgical instrument handling, repair and cleaning, clothing and medical assist areas; areas of medical garbage removal and medical sanitation work, medical work in retirement homes, and cleaning or industrial operations in any building where there may be any risk of a pathogenic infection. Surgical gloves and/or examination gloves (medical gloves) may be used in animal medicine and during general work with animals in research, on farms or ranchs with animals, in veterinary and animal husbandry practices and pet stores, in work with zoo animals, and in similar work where there may be some risk of contact with an infectious pathogen. Medical gloves may also provide useful protection from physical contact with infectious pathogens that may exist in potentially infectious nonmedical technical areas, scientific areas and other work areas including the following: industrial, military, or other research work that involves work with pathogens in molecular biology or molecular genetics, fermentation and vaccine production; the facilitites include any government, military, commercial, industrial, or biotechnological production, research and testing areas. Medical gloves are also useful protective hand wear in areas or in work which may include the following: public and business building maintenance work and cleaning, outdoor public areas work, restaurant work, sports clubs, spas, health clubs, massage palors, ghetto area building rehabilitation and clean-up work; guard work in jails, prisons, and other crimminal confinement facilities. Public or private vehicles used to provide surface, underground, water, underwater, air, aerospace or even outer space transport conceivably may harbor infectious pathogens. Travel in such vehicles may require an individual to wear protective medical gloves.
Conventional medical gloves are often worn to protect the hands of an individual from coming into physical contact with an infectious pathogen that infects another individual. The following individuals at risk of being infected with an infectious pathogen are listed here as a nonlimiting example: a person infected with the AIDS virus, a person infected with hepatitus B virus or other viruses, a person with a bacterial infection, a hospital patient, a health care patient, an intravenous drug user, a prostitute, a gang member, a homeless person, a mentally-ill person, a person suspected of or engaged in criminal activity, a captured or convicted or imprisoned crimminal; an illegal immigrant, an immigrant from an AIDS infested population, a new immigrant, a homosexual or bisexual individual, a sexually promiscuous individual, and a chronically-ill, elderly or incapacitated person who is at an increased risk of harboring an infectious pathogen.
A glove in accordance with the present invention may also usefully protect an individual under other circumstances. Animals, plants, soil, water, the air, and various forms of environmental pollution are capable of supporting colonies of infectious pathogens which may infect an individual. Thus workers in many nonmedical environments can also be contaminated by an infectious pathogen; such nonmedical workers include but are not limited to the following workers: law enforcement workers, police, state trooper, national guard, military personnel, traffic police, transit police, jail and prison workers, park workers and park cleaners, sanitation workers, city morgue workers, hospital morgue workers, funeral home workers, and cemetary workers, waste and water treatment facility workers, street cleaners, sewer workers and other municipal workers, persons cleaning public bathrooms and portable toilet maintainance workers.
In addition, gloves in accordance with the present invention can be worn by any doctor, dentist, health care worker and the like or other individual who choses to continue working after they have tested seropositive with an infectious pathogen such as HIV or hepatitus B virus (See News York Times article by Jane Gross, dated Aug. 18, 1991). It is particularly important for infected medical personnel to wear protective medical gloves so that they do not transmit their infection via their hands to another person.
If an object cuts, or otherise penetrates a thin medical glove wall while it is being worn on a hand, the physical barrier protection provided by the glove is immediately lost. Such an accident to a glove may in the process also wound the hand and this wounding can expose the blood circulation of the individual to an infectious pathogen; becoming wounded is particularly traumatic if the surface of the wounding object is thought to be contaminated with an infectious pathogen such as HIV.
Medical personnel in particular know that a conventional medical glove can not adequately protect the hand it covers from a hand-wounding accident with an AIDS-contaminated object such as a syringe needle. A variety of medical objects have caused an instant HIV inoculation to the hands of health care workers wearing standard surgical or examination gloves (See Henderson et al., 1990; Beekman et al., 1990; Panlilo et al., 1991).
For the present invention, the term glove wall puncture is defined broadly to encompass glove wall punctures caused by any process. A glove wall puncture may be caused by any physical object capable of cutting, biting, abrading, puncturing, stabbing, crushing, or otherwise physically penetrating the glove wall. When such objects are contaminated with an infectious pathogen, they can act as a carrier for the transfer of the infectious pathogen to the hand and the hand wound. Alternatively, the glove wall puncture may be caused in the absence of a solid physical object, by one or more of the following processes: a chemical reaction with the glove, a solvent that can dissolve the glove wall, a change in the ambient gas pressure or liquid pressure over the glove wall, a powerful electrical shock through the glove wall, a thermal melting or burning of the glove wall or a low temperature fragmentation of the glove wall; in these examples, the process causing the glove wall puncture may not act as a carrier for the transfer of an infectious pathogen to the hand or the hand wound. In general however, a glove wall puncture creates the access means for an infectious pathogen to contact the hand or a hand wound from the exterior surface of the glove.
Health care workers and medical doctors in particular, know that hand wounding is a common accident that they often experience a number of times each year in their work environments because conventional medical gloves are not puncture-resistant (Panlilio et al., 1991; see especially Wright et al., 1991). For the present invention, the term "hand" is herein broadly defined to encompass all portions of an arm and a hand that may be covered by a glove in accordance with the present invention; thus use of the term "hand" may refer to the fingers, all surfaces of the hand, the wrist, the forearm, and may refer even to the surfaces of the arm up to the armpit and shoulder for some embodiments of the present invention.
Health care workers and other professionals who care for patients with AIDS know that they can become infected with the AIDS virus (HIV) from the AIDS patients. It is important to consider that as a result of the AIDS epidemic, medical doctors and health care workers now work with increased anxiety and fear of contracting AIDS; that an accidental hand wound during their professional work may infect them with HIV and shorten their lives (Gerberding and Schecter, 1991). Each time a gloved hand is wounded by an object contaminated with blood or other body fluids, the wounded medical worker must psychologically deal with the possibility that the wound was contaminated with HIV, that the medical worker may be at risk of a systemic HIV infection. Thus, there is a particularily urgent need for an improved medical glove that can better protect a hand when the hand is wounded by an object that may be contaminated with an infectious pathogen such as HIV.
Some medical doctors and health care workers have been reluctant to admit that they have obtained a hand wound during their work from an object possibly contaminated with HIV or that their blood has tested positive for HIV antibodies because this information may indicate that they may have a systemic HIV infection. Such disclosures can threaten their employment in health care (See Orentlicher, D., 1991; and New York Times article by Jane Gross, dated Aug. 18, 1991). As a result of the unreported HIV infections, the data gathered to estimate the incidence of accidental skin punctures among health care workers is undoubtedly underestimated and thus inaccurate.
As already mentioned, sharp medical instruments and needles in use by medical personnel can easily puncture a standard medical glove on a hand and the hand underneath the glove can become wounded (See Gerberding and Schecter, 1991). The reported incidence of accidental skin punctures to hospital surgical personnel in three major municipal hospitals (in San Francisco, Albuerque, and Atlanta) has averaged 2 to 5 injuries per 100 procedures (Panlilio et al., 1991; Gerberding et al., 1990; Gerberding and Schecter, 1991). These hospitals have also reported that occupational exposure to blood occurred often in surgical settings (Gerberding et al., 1990; Gerberding and Schecter, 1991; Panlilio et al., 1991). Accidental blood contact between a patient having HIV and workers in other more casual (nonsurgical) medical settings has been predicted to increase in view of the epidemic spread of HIV infection in the United States and in the World (Gerberding et al., 1990).
Three known factors that can affect the risk of a medical worker becoming infected with an infectious pathogen are (1) the prevalence of blood-borne infection in the patient population under treatment by the medical worker, (2) the frequency and types of hazardous exposure that the medical worker is subjected to, and (3) the risk of infection that accompanies each exposure to the medical worker (Gerberding and Schecter, 1991). It thought unlikely that medical personnel can control the first two factors and still remain valid health care workers. It is an object of the present invention to lower the worker's risk from the third factor, namely a glove in accordance with the present invention can lower the risk of infection that accompanies each hazardous exposure to a medical worker's hand.
The risk of systemic HIV infection to an individual wounded on a hand from a single hollow needle stick has recently been estimated to average roughly 0.4 percent (1 occurence in 250 events). This risk estimate was calculated from observations of documented needlestick wounds that were contaminated with blood from patients having an advanced stage of HIV infection during which their blood had an elevated HIV titer (Beekman et al., 1990; Henderson et al., 1990). This estimate is obviously an underestimate because some hand injuries will not be reported and therefore this study underscores the real risk medical workers experience.
Analysis of the risk of infection that accompanies each individual exposure of the hand and the hand wound to an infectious pathogen has been conducted, based upon an in vitro study of glove wall punctures by needles. The study found that the risk was influenced by several variables. An important variable was the volume of infectious blood transferred by the needlestick (See Mast and Gerberding, 1991). Other important variables included (1) the titer of the infectious pathogen in the contaminating blood, (2) the needle type and size, and (3) the depth of skin penetration by the pathogen contaminated object. Other observations have shown that wearing a standard medical glove on the hand can reduce the volume of blood transferred to the hand wound by about 50 percent (See Gerberding and Schecter, 1991). When two pairs of standard medical gloves were worn on the hand, the contamination of the hand wound by blood was further reduced to between 20 to 40 percent, (Gerberding and Schecter, 1991; Mandelbrot et al., 1990). Thus, studies have found that wearing two gloves on a hand can not adequately protect a hand, as it is wounded by a blood-tainted needle, from becoming contaminated with a substantial fraction of the foreign blood, infectious pathogens or other substances present on the blood-tainted needle. In view of the (a) marginal protection that conventional gloves can provide, (b) the frequency of accidental hand wounds by gloved health care workers, and (c) the increasing incidence of HIV infection in the human population, it is reasonable to expect that the probability of any health care worker becoming infected with HIV during work as a result of HIV contamination of a hand wound will increase. Because almost every HIV infection eventually causes AIDS which is believed to be fatal for almost all individuals, the medical profession is greatly concerned that the risk of HIV infection from a medical glove puncture is too high and urgently needs to be substantially reduced (See Orentlicher, 1991).
A glove capable of providing an immediate liquid antiseptic composition treatment to a hand or a hand wound would be a novel invention. The prior art has not disclosed a glove having a wall storing or leaking a liquid antiseptic composition which comprises an antiseptic in a liquid. The prior art has not disclosed the use of a glove capable of storing a liquid antiseptic composition or capable of leaking the liquid antiseptic composition onto a hand or into a hand wound as a treatment means for the hand and the hand wound when the glove is punctured and/or the hand is wounded by an object that may be contaminated with an infectious pathogen. To have medical utility, such a protective medical glove would need to retain the flexibility and the comfortability characteristics of conventional medical gloves. A glove in accordance with the present invention can meet these requirements but has not been identically disclosed or described in the prior art. Related prior art is described below but is not identical to the present invention. In view of the prior art, the subject matter of the present invention as a whole would not be obvious to persons of ordinary skill in the art pertaining to the subject matter of the present invention at the time of the invention.
A protective gel composition has been disclosed (U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,604 issued May 28, 1990 to G. M. Lemole) for coating the skin prior to covering the hands with standard surgical gloves. In one example, the composition contains lanolin, liquid silicone, polypropylene glycol monoleate, polytetrafluoroethylene powder in microspherical form, zinc oxide powder, anti-bacterial agents and antiviral agents with a preferred agent being nonoxynol-9. The composition forms a water repellent coating on the skin to prevent the skin contacting body fluids such as blood and blood products that may penetrate the gloves and otherwise expose the skin to harmful microbial and vital infections. The use of a protective gel to continuously contact the skin with chemicals may be irritating to the hands. After glove removal, the gel coating the skin must be washed off. Some individuals may also find that the number of step required to use and remove the gel is disagreeable. Use of the gel composition in a liquid composition in between two gloves was not suggested.
Use of antiseptic-coated gloves has been disclosed in a study of surgical hand hygiene (J. Hospit. Infect. 1988, 11 Supp. A:244-250 by Newsom et al.). Gloves were coated with solid cetylpyridinium chloride and surpressed skin flora counts after prolonged operations in comparison to standard gloves, but the solid antiseptic coating may cause hand irritation after prolonged contact. Use of such antiseptic in a liquid composition in between two gloves was not suggested.
Use of the antiseptic 4.0% chlorhexidine gluconate detergent formulation containing 4.0% isopropyl alcohol (Hibiclens/Hibiscrub) and the antiseptic 0.50% chlorohexidine gluconate in 70.0% isopropyl alcohol with emollients (Hibistat/Hibisol) as a skin treatment has been disclosed (J. Hospital Infection, 1990, 15:279-282 by Montefiori DC et al.). This antiseptic composition was found to inactivate HIV in experimental cell cultures after 15 seconds when used at 1:100 and 1:5 dilutions. Use of such antiseptic in liquid composition in between two gloves was not suggested.
A sterile glove has been disclosed in which the antibacterial agent zeolite is immobilized in a plastic film on one or both surfaces of the glove; useful for handling food, for work in a kitchen or for medical purposes (U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,638 issued Apr. 2, 1991 by T. Miyake and T. Yamamoto). According to the Merck Index (8th Edition), zeolite is a hydrated dust or powder of alkali aluminum silicate. An immobilized thin layer of antibacterial agent can not help to prevent a hand wound infection. Use of such antiseptic in liquid composition in between two gloves was not suggested.
A glove has been disclosed which was made by first immobilizing an anti-microbial agent into rubber and by then solidifying the mixture into a glove (U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,245, issued Jul. 16, 1991 by Milner, R.). The glove was reported to be an improved barrier to HIV. A non-ionic, sparingly water-soluble antimicrobial agent that does not coagulate natural rubber latex such as chlorophene, dichloroxylenol, hexachloraphane was used; diphenyl derivatives may be halogenated and used such as 0.1% to 10% by wt. 2,4,4'-trichloro-2'-hydroxyphenyl ether, diacetylaminoazotoluene, triclocarban and triclosan. The surface of the glove was dusted with a powder containing an antimicrobial agent such as chlorhexidine digluconate and cyclodextrin. The antiseptic dust on the glove surface contacts the hand while the glove is worn and may irritate the skin. Use of such antiseptic in liquid composition in between two gloves was not suggested.
A multilaminar hybrid glove has been disclosed having at least an outer rubber layer, an inner rubber layer and at least one intermediate cotton material layer impregnated with a gel containing nonoxynol-9; regions of the glove may be protected with an armor of fungicide-coated, puncture-resistant Kevlar plastic (Infect. Control Hospital Epidemiol. 1991 12(7): 435-438 by Johnson et al., 1991). In vitro tests found that the glove with Kevlar resisted some needlestick punctures. In vitro tests found that the glove reduced the transfer of HIV from a solid needle tip to a culture dish by chemical inactivation of the virus on the needle when the needle contacted the gel containing nonoxynol-9 in the cotton layer. Results using "hollow" syringe needles were not obtained and the authors indicated they could not predict such results without additional study. The multilaminar glove was stiff and thick walled, and therefore was useless as a flexible protective glove for a hand that had to be able to comfortably perform medical tasks. The use of nonoxynol-9 in a liquid composition stored between two medical gloves was not suggested.
The present invention is directed to providing novel protective glove designs and methods for their use. A glove in accordance with the present invention contains within its glove walls a liquid antiseptic composition which comprises an antiseptic in a liquid. The subject matter of this invention as a whole has not been made obvious nor was it suggested by either the prior art concerning protective medical gloves or the prior art concerning protective antiseptic compositions for the hands. The flexible protective medical gloves which comprise the present invention solve the problem of protecting a gloved hand from an infection when the glove is punctured and the hand underneath the glove is wounded by an object contaminated with an infectious pathogen. The method of using the present glove invention is simple because the substantial protective functions of the glove are semi-automated; thus the present invention is an important advancement in the medical glove field because the a glove in accordance with the present invention can help to immediately treat an infectious pathogen contaminated hand and hand wound with a liquid antiseptic composition provided that the contamination has arisen from the act of a glove puncturing object while the glove is being worn. A further advantage of the present invention over the prior art is that contact and thus unnecessary irritation of the hand by the antiseptic composition is avoided until the glove wall is punctured by an object.